News round-up: More pensioners and children living in poverty

June 11, 2008 in Community Care

More pensioners and children living in poverty
Thousands more children and pensioners are living in poverty, according to new official figures. The number of children living below the breadline rose by 100,000 for the second year in a row to a total of 2.9 million, a blow to Gordon Brown, who has pledged to halve the total by 2010.

Knife crime: Populus poll shows public favour draconian action
London: Parents whose children are caught carrying knives should be prosecuted, as well as their offspring, according to a new Populus poll for The Times. The poll, carried out over the weekend, suggests that the public favour much tougher action by the police and the courts on knives.

Social work sick leave
One fifth of all social workers have taken long-term sick leave of a month or more in the past five years.

Sex trafficker jailed
A human trafficker who forced a Czech woman into prostitution by threatening to sell her children for their organs was jailed for eight years.

Minister’s threats put schools in turmoil, say heads
Schools are being thrown into turmoil by government threats to turn them into academies, headteachers have claimed.

Government pledges £255m to improve carers’ lives
The government today unveiled a £255m package to improve the lives of carers – but campaigners warned it was not enough to lift many out of poverty.

Social care law change in prospect
The Law Commission today holds out the prospect of the first comprehensive reform of social care law for more than half a century.

Sex discrimination: Ministers urged to stick to equal pay promises
Women’s rights campaigners tried last night to forestall a feared cabinet decision to water down a government commitment to end gender discrimination in the workplace.

Back from the brink
Violence, poverty and drug abuse led to squalor and a life of crime, but ex-criminal Peter Woolf tells Esther Addley how a chance encounter turned his life around and why he tries to get offenders to face up to the suffering they cause

Child porn: US internet firms agree crackdown
Three major US internet service providers have agreed to block online bulletin boards and websites that disseminate child pornography, it has been announced.